Paper or Electronic Textbooks? Students at Texas A&M University Discuss Their Preferences

“It’s easier to carry around a device that has electronic books on it than to carry around textbooks,” Kelli McCosham, sophomore animal science major said. “It’s also more ‘green’ and is probably cheaper overall than textbooks.”

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Mikaela Hugo, junior biology major, said she buys textbooks on her tablet whenever they are available because she can store multiple on one device.

“Tablets weigh less than a textbook and can have multiple on it, so I don’t have much of an excuse to leave it at home,” Hugo said. “A lot of times buying the textbook on a tablet is more affordable than buying the physical copy.”

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“I am used to studying with textbooks and I don’t see a reason to break tradition,” Heather Martindale, junior education major said. “Not to mention studying with my iPad gives me full access to the distractions of the Internet.”

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Acacia Jarvis, junior mechanical engineering major said that she would rather have the material physically in front of her, as opposed to on a screen.

“I just like flipping through the pages of a book,” Jarvis said. “There is something about reading a book that a computer screen doesn’t have.”

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.